David Hughes is the Daily Telegraph's chief leader writer. He has been covering British politics for 30 years.

Vince Cable a socialist? What a surprise

If Adrian Beecroft thinks that calling Vince Cable a “socialist” is a stinging insult that will upset the old boy, he’s being politically naïve. The Business Secretary is a proud man of the Left, reminding readers of his website that he served as a Labour councillor in Glasgow for three years in the 1970s before joining the SDP. Anyway, ideology needn’t be a problem in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. Vince’s predecessor Lord Mandelson was probably the most successful Business Secretary of recent years despite being a Labour man through and through, albeit one who professed himself to totally relaxed about the “filthy rich”.

But in Cable’s case, ideology does tend to get in the way. Beecroft revealed that Cable had never discussed his report with him. Why on earth not? It may have been provocative but there are plenty of sensible ideas in it that could help stimulate the economy. Instead, he picked up one of many recommendations – Beecroft’s call for “no-fault dismissal”, or firing at will – and let it be known he thought it “bonkers”. If Cable’s purpose was to scare Downing Street off endorsing Beecroft with any real enthusiasm, it succeeded. And an opportunity to start a sensible debate about workplace law was drowned out by another yet another Coalition bust-up.

This is not a particularly grown-up way of doing things. Cable has shown – not least with the way he helped secure General Motor’s decision to build the new Vauxhall Astra, safeguarding and creating thousands of jobs – that he can be a persuasive and effective minister. But there is always a nagging suspicion that, deep down, this former chief economist of the Shell Oil company doesn’t really get on with business people. As Beecroft observed: “I think people find it very odd that he’s in charge of business and yet appears to do very little to support business.” Quite so.